Also, don't overestimate man, either, or the world. Adam and Eve's Fall
was real, and it twisted the world beyond man's capacity to repair by
himself. The world is not always a very nice place. Jesus Christ is not a
convenience, he is a necessity. Man is fallen, not only prone to sin, but
also prone to justifying and excusing his sins. Part of ''preaching the
gospel to all nations'' is simply resisting evil acts, and saying out loud
that they are evil. Be nice to people - but don't be nice to actual
sin.

Finally, it's not your job to make even one person a Catholic. Nobody can
do that, not even the Pope. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and you need
to take that seriously. It is absolutely true that you do risk moving
farther from Christ if you do not walk with his one true Bride and Body,
the Catholic Church. It is absolutely true that being a Catholic is better
than any other choice, ever. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit takes man's
freedom so seriously that he waits for each man to decide that for
himself. It is certainly not your job to give a man less freedom than God
does.

However, Jesus did tell his disciples to preach the gospel to all
nations. All men of all times and all places have the positive right to
know Christ and his one true Bride and Body, the Catholic Church, and to
receive her sacraments. Yet salvation is a free gift, and it must be
freely received.

Making sure that all men at all times and places have enough knowledge
and opportunity to freely choose to be a Catholic and to receive the
sacraments, if that's what they really want, is the job of every Catholic,
including you. <<

Many times in this course, you will see a phrase like, ''Read Genesis
2:19,'' or ''read CCC 119.'' When you see these instructions to read a
particular passage from the Bible or from the Catechism, it means that
you

a. can wait until the end of the question
to read the passage.b. must immediately read the passage, even
before finishing the question.c. should ignore any instructions in this
text that tell you to read something.

To learn from this course, you MUST read a passage the moment you are
asked to, even before continuing with the question or the explanation.

First of all, please do not be surprised when a course introducing the
Old Testament ''in the heart of the Catholic Church'' asks you to actually
read passages from the Bible and from the Catechism!

Second, in this course, reading a passage the moment you are asked to is
not optional because it is very important to your ability to make full use
of this course. This course is consciously designed to help you to learn
new ideas by making it easy to connect the new ideas to ideas already at
your fingertips.

When you see an instruction like ''read Exodus 14,'' or ''read CCC 123,''
you should understand that you need to have the ideas of that particular
passage fresh in your mind, so that you can easily connect those ideas
with the very next ideas in the sentence or the question.

So how are you going to have the ideas of that passage fresh in your mind
if you don't read that passage just before continuing in the sentence or
the question?

Remember: when this course says, ''Read'' - read, right then and there.
You need to have the ideas in that passage fresh in your mind, so you can
easily connect them to the very next ideas you will read. <<

In this course, reading a passage the moment you are asked to is NOT
optional because

a. so many courses ask you to do absolutely
ridiculous things that teach you nothing, and this course is just like all
the rest.b. this course is not actually designed to
make it easy for you to learn complicated ideas, but is just trying to
increase your work load.c. you need to have the ideas in that
passage fresh in your mind, so you can easily connect them to the very
next ideas you will read.

Although the Catholic Church has affirmed that the first five books of
the Bible are connected with Moses (and thus can rightly be called by one
of their traditional names, ''the books of Moses''), modern scholars have
given many good reasons to think that they were probably not written by a
single human author. Instead, for example, many stories kept and treasured
for centuries by the Jewish people were eventually brought together to
make the first book of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis. A long time
ago, most people thought that the prophet Moses had written the book of
Genesis all by himself. Did that jeopardize their union with God?

a. No. Nothing can jeopardize our union
with God.b. No. They were making a mistake, but it
was just a mistake.c. Yes. All mistakes jeopardize our union
with God.

When two people disagree about what the Bible means, somebody (possibly
both of them) may be making a mistake. That

a. does not matter, because union with
Christ is not very important.b. does not necessarily mean that anybody
is moving farther from Christ.c. means that somebody is of necessity
moving farther from Christ.

Long ago, people ''knew'' that Moses wrote the book of Genesis by
himself, but they were probably making a mistake, without even realizing
it. We're human, too. We ourselves might be making a mistake about the
Bible right now, without even realizing it. Does the possibility that a
future generation might decide that we have made our own mistakes about
the Bible, jeopardize our own union with God?

a. No. Nothing can jeopardize our union
with God.b. No. We too can make a mistake, and it
can be just a mistake.c. Yes. All mistakes jeopardize our union
with God.

We can make sizable mistakes about the Bible, without jeopardizing our
union with Christ. However, like Marcion, we can also make mistakes about
the Bible that do jeopardize our union with Christ. So, how do we tell the
harmless mistakes from the deadly ones?

We can make sizable mistakes about the Bible, without jeopardizing our
union with Christ. However, like Marcion, we can also make mistakes about
the Bible that do jeopardize our union with Christ. So, how do we tell the
harmless mistakes from the deadly ones?

a. We look deep within ourselves, make
certain that our hearts are pure, then pray for guidance from the Holy
Spirit, who will inform us by giving us a special feeling for the correct
answer.b. If there is a tradition of the Catholic
Church's judgment on the matter, we study that, or we find out if the
present Holy Father, or the present Catholic bishops in union with him,
have made a judgment.c. We study the works of the most
distinguished scholars in the most reputable universities, carefully
examine the evidence pro and con, and form a mature judgment based on the
facts.

Many ideas about the Bible help us to come closer to Christ. Many more
ideas about the Bible at very least do not take us farther from Christ. We
can disagree about them, with no harm to our union with Christ. Yet some
ideas about the Bible do take us farther from Christ. How do you tell the
difference? At times, you must wait for the Church to decide, and in the
meantime do your best.

When there is a new controversy about what the Bible means, don't imagine
that the Pope looks up the correct answer in a secret book hidden in the
Vatican entitled, ''What the Bible REALLY Means.'' A possible (but totally
unofficial) way to see this:

Imagine something really amazing: that God himself has no such book.
Instead, imagine a world in which God himself WAITS for the Catholic
Church to decide what the Bible means, and then, once the Church decides,
that is the meaning.

You think that God would never do anything like that? Please read in the
Old Testament, the book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 19 (Gen 2:19). (Yes,
now).

The ''name'' of something describes its essence, its meaning and
significance (compare CCC 203). God created all the animals. Yet with
awesome tenderness God freely trusted Adam to give each animal its true
name. As part of his divine plan for creation God brought each animal to
Adam and waited for Adam to name it. Then, ONCE ADAM SPOKE, ''that was its
name.'' [Gen 2:19] >>

The Church teaches that Christ is the New Adam [CCC 411, 504]. If God
trusted Adam, he certainly trusts his only Son, the New Adam, to speak
through his Spouse and Body, the Catholic Church, to give the true
''name'' of ideas about the Bible - to say what their meaning and
significance is.

Once the Holy Father and bishops united with him decide firmly about an
idea (you can tell there's been a firm enough decision - just for instance
- if it's been included in the Catechism), then ''that is its name.''
Thereafter, you can not wait any longer. You must walk with the Church to
continue to fully walk with her Lord.

Before that, however, your job is to do what you think is best. God is
not consulting a pre-written book entitled ''What the Bible REALLY Means''
and flunking you if you don't have the 'right answer' before the Church
herself decides what it is!

So, whenever there is a controversy about the Bible (whatever it is and
no matter how serious), God himself WAITS for the New Adam of the New
Creation, His Son, to speak through his Body and Bride, the Catholic
Church. While God himself waits for the true ''name'' of the idea, you
certainly can, too. While you wait, as long as you keep listening to the
Church, faithfully receiving the sacraments, obeying the commandments, and
practicing charity, your union with Christ is perfectly safe.
<<

Suppose there is an idea about the Bible. If the Church has formed no
firm judgment, then we

a. have to use our own best judgment, and
sincere people can disagree about the matter, with no threat to their
salvation.b. have to use our own best judgment, but
if it turns out that we made a mistake, then our salvation is at risk.c. should avoid thinking about the matter
unless and until the Church makes a definitive judgment.

Suppose there is an idea about the Bible. Suppose you've thought about
it, and agree with it. Now suppose the Church forms a firm judgment, and
rejects your idea. Then, through the successors of his apostles, Catholic
bishops in union with the Pope, Christ himself is teaching us how to
remain close to him,

a. and you risk everything if you move
toward an idea that Christ says will take you farther from him.b. but your idea is still OK as long as you
sincerely do not understand why the Church's position is correct.c. but you would be wrong to change your
own mind just because the Church said that your idea was harmful.

In the fourth century AD, many Catholic bishops agreed with the Catholic
priest Arius, and taught that, since there is only one God, then Jesus,
God's Son, has been made a sort of honorary God, but is not actually God.
The fact that many Catholic bishops at the time taught incredibly serious
heresy means that

a. Holy Orders is not really a sacrament.
Bishops are not protected from error, even when they decide something
important.b. the Catholic Church became corrupt a
long time ago, and has failed to preserve the true meaning of
Christianity.c. we have to pay close attention to
whether particular bishops are teaching in union with the bishop of Rome,
the Pope.